Human
by CrimeStopper136
Summary: "I need to know that you can be objective" "And I need to know that I can be human" What if 3.04 ended slightly differently and Emily took Carrie home with her to DC? she wouldn't be in it alone, despite what she believes she has a support network. Eventual Demily - it's better than the description
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer; I don't own criminal minds or anything else, like at all, I'm a broke uni student, even the thoughts in my head are costing me a fortune in student loans. Plus if I did own criminal minds, Morgan and Prentiss would have definitely gotten together. Atm I'm hoping for her to get with Alvez but they'll probably never give her a long standing social life if history is anything to go by. Okay, enough ranting.

So this is set after 3.04 (Children of the dark) when Emily offered to take the teenage survivor whose family had been killed in a home invasion, I've remembered that storyline vaguely for years and I wanted to do something with it. In the episode, her family in California is contacted so Emily doesn't take her, but in this there was no family in California, I might backtrack a little and use some dialogue from the episode. Anyway, it's eventual Demily and I hope you guys like it.

...

The unsubs had been caught, two dangerous, damaged men taken off the streets and yet as Emily and Hotch were packing up the case files at the precinct, she couldn't help but feel like the job wasn't finished, like there was something more she should be doing to help repair some of the damage that had been done.

"I could take her" Emily couldn't help herself, once she had thought about the possibility there was no going back, this was it, the way that she could do more.

"take her?" Hotch looked up puzzled.

"Carrie. To DC."

"you mean to live with you?"

"yeah"

"Why would you want to do that?"

"well, I have room, money. Plus, she's smart, two three years she goes to college"

Hotch's face became serious, even more so than usual "Prentiss, this is the job, I need to know you can be objective."

"and I need to know that I can be human" Emily was warring with her emotions to try and keep them in check. "besides, what's the alternative, Foster care? Because we all know how that went for those two guys looking at life in prison"

"not all foster homes are like that"

"no, some are even worse. And even if they aren't, we're really okay with that poor girl being placed in a home with 5 other kids, none of whom she knows, with no support system? Her entire family was just killed in front of her, I can't just forget about her and hope for the best."

Hotch sighed, "trust me I get it but we can't just take in children wherever we go, it's a huge responsibility"

"I know that, she's not a stray dog, she's a 15-year-old girl who deserves to live somewhere where the people aren't just doing it for money from the state, somewhere where she's wanted, somewhere with the resources to help her through the worst thing that will ever happen to her, and I truly believe I can give her that." Emily was succeeding in convincing him she could tell as his face was softening, and was doing a pretty good job at convincing herself in the process.

"alright, I see your point, besides I'm not sure if social services has found somewhere for her yet. I will support this idea on a temporary basis, not that you really need my endorsement, there's not a lot I could do to stop you considering she is now a ward of the state and I have no pull in that particular branch of government"

Emily sighed in satisfaction "I know, I just thought it would be helpful to show them that my boss is on board with the idea. I have to talk to Carrie about it anyway, I'm not going to force her to move state if she'd rather stay here where things are familiar."

…

Emily walked through the bullpen looking for Carrie, she noticed someone sitting in a darkened office and went over, knocking on the door gently and pushing it open. Carrie was sitting with tears rolling down her face, wiping them away as she looked up. "hey." Emily said softly.

"hey" Carrie sniffed "so, what happens now?"

"well" Emily sighed "they're in custody, and they won't get bail so you don't need to worry about that, then they'll be put on trial, if they don't make a deal that is, and they'll never see the light of day again." Emily moved to sit next to her with her hands placed on her knees, unsure of whether she should try to be more comforting.

Carrie nodded in understanding and took a soothing breath "and what about me? Where do I go now?" she turned to look Emily in the eye, preparing for the news she feared would be coming next.

"well, I actually wanted to talk to you about that." She took a deep breath to try calm her nerves, suddenly worrying whether Carrie would actually want to live with her, to move away from everyone and everything she knows, to a strange city with someone she met only days ago. Emily's mind started to race, what was she thinking? Of course she wouldn't want to live with her, but by this point there was no harm in asking, the worse that could happen was that she would say no, and while Emily would undoubtedly be crushed, she could take solace in the fact that she had offered help to a young girl in desperate need of support. "It's protocol in situations like these that a minor like yourself would be placed in a foster home temporarily, until something more permanent could be arranged." She saw Carries face drop and hurriedly followed it with "however, It is possible for a third party to gain temporary foster carer status in unusual cases, which yours most certainly is… basically, what I'm saying is that if you would like, _I_ could be your guardian."

Carrie looked back up at Emily, mouth open with a million different emotions registering on her face. She went to speak but her words caught in her throat. Carrie couldn't help but feel relieved and grateful, happy even, until she remembered why this was happening, why a beautiful kind woman was offering to bring her into her home. The reason came flooding back to her in images, the memory of her parents being beaten with a fire poker in front of her, seeing her 7-year-old brothers body lying on his bed, waking in a drug haze and falling over her parents' bloody bodies, wandering the streets until a good Samaritan saw her and called 911. She thought about the house she had grown up in, the school she had gone to since junior year, she thought about leaving all of that behind and felt sick. Then it occurred to her that she would be leaving her childhood home and all the memories that came with it no matter what, and there was no guarantee that she would be placed in a home close enough to go to the same school, she could be placed on the other side of the state and never see her friends again as it was. All bets were off and there was no such thing as normal anymore, no matter what her life would never be the same. She was snapped out of her reverie by Emily's phone ringing. She looked at it and shut off the sound with a quick apology and Carrie was brought back to the present where suddenly a million questions filled her mind. "where do you live?"

"DC" Emily was relieved, she didn't know where Carrie's mind had gone just then but she knew this was an incredibly complex situation and was just glad that there hadn't been a flat-out rejection right off the bat. That meant she was considering it, which meant Emily still had a chance.

Carrie mulled this over for a few seconds before asking "and you can do that? Just become a foster parent? Isn't that super complicated?"

"usually, yes, but in special cases someone can be granted temporary custody, plus I'm an FBI agent, which makes me somewhat more trustworthy than the average Jo who just wants to give fostering a try. Besides, with what you've gone through child protective services wants to do what's in your best interests psychologically as well as physically"

Carrie turned and asked "can I think about it?"

Emily was shocked she'd even considered it this long, replying "O-of course, this is a big decision." She placed a hand over Carries and reassured her "I just want you to know though that it's completely up to you and while I can't guarantee where you would end up in the system, you'll always be able to give me a call if you need anything or just want someone to talk to, this isn't an all or nothing situation." She wanted to put her mind at ease as to not corner her into feeling obligated to say yes. She looked at her watch and was shocked at how much time had gone by, it was almost 7. "unfortunately, my team has to leave in the morning, I managed to get them to stay the night but we would need to get the ball rolling as soon as possible so there isn't that much time. I don't wat to rush you though, I can only imagine how difficult this is." She stood up and placed a hand on Carries' shoulder before stepping out of the room. She leaned against the door to the office and let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

…

11:34pm

Emily was sitting in the conference room she had been tidying hours before, the team had gone back to the hotel to get some sleep, leaving her to wait for an answer from Carrie. JJ, Morgan and Reid had all volunteered to stay with her at some point but she told them to get some rest, besides, she needed her stuff from the hotel anyway and wasn't sure she would get the chance to go back before the morning. She was just dozing off, resting on her arm on the table when Morgan came in with both their go bags and a cup of hot chocolate.

"what are you doing here? I'm fine, really, you should be asleep in a comfy bed right now."

Derek offered her the cup which she took, smiling. "and what kind of friend would I be if I let you sit here all night waiting for a potentially life changing decision all on your own. Not to mention, PG would kill me." He offered with a smirk.

"Ah I see" she nodded

"no but seriously, this is such a great thing you're willing to do for this girl, possibly crazy, but great" Derek's eyes softened and he offered a reassuring smile.

Emily looked down at the cup in her hands, unable to look at him anymore. This sincere side was rare with him, he was serious at work, she knew he was whip smart and quick on his feet, and she knew the cheeky side he shared with Penelope but the heartfelt guy sitting opposite her was rare for her to see. Of course, she knew it was there, she'd seen it before when he'd spoken to the homeless woman in Kansas City, even earlier that day with the boy they had to take back to the foster home, and subsequently had to talk into giving up a loaded gun, she just wasn't used to it being directed at her.

"Emily" she looked back up at him "you know I'm here if you need anything, we all are. You're not doing this alone."

"thanks, really. But I'm not sure if I'm doing this at all at the minute"

It was just then that Carrie appeared in the doorway, Emily sat up straight, placing her cup on the table, trying not to show just how nervous she was about the answer she was about to receive, not wanting to put any more pressure on the girl in front of her who had just lost her whole world. Everything seemed to slow, it was as if time itself was standing still wanting to hear her decision.

"Yeah, Lets do it, if you'll have me."

Please read and review, any suggestions or corrections are welcome :)


	2. Chapter 2

Authors note: okay so I have no real clue as to how cps works and the foster system in general so all I'm going off is my imagination and various tv shows I've watched that have touched on it. Please be forgiving, and if you guys know of something I get wrong just let me know, but it is a story so I may take some artistic liberties.

…

"Yeah, Let's do it, if you'll have me."

Emily took a deep breath and stood up, facing Carrie, she couldn't keep the smile off her face o instead she tried to make it seem reassuring rather than joyous, this didn't feel like the right time or circumstances to be feeling joy. She took a deep breath and said "Okay, well, if you're sure, we should start getting the ball rolling." Carrie gave a small smile and nodded in agreement.

Emily spent the next few hours on the phone, calling social services both in Denver and D.C. while Derek sat with Carrie.

"so, agent Prentiss seems really nice… I mean, she's been great so far"

"yeah, she's good people. Plus D.C is really nice, you ever been?" Morgan was trying to keep her talking.

"um, no but I wanted to"

Just then Emily came back into the room with a smile on her face, "hey so, you're cleared to come with me to D.C. I mean it wasn't easy but after talking to 5 people at 3 different agencies, and forcing them to talk to each other in the middle of the night, we're good for an emergency care situation for a week, then children's services will do a check on us after that and we'll see where we go from there." She walked over to where Morgan and Carrie were sitting and gave Morgan an appreciative smile. Emily took a deep breath and broached the subject she had been hoping to get around, Carrie needed her things and they were all at her house. She considered offering to go and pack up Carries things for her but she didn't know that she needed or wanted, besides, she couldn't expect her to just leave the state and not see her home again, there may be memories she wanted to take with her, even though there were undoubtedly ones she would like to never revisit it was foolish to think that Carrie wouldn't want to look at the house she grew up in one last time.

Carrie agreed to go back to the house the next morning, even though she was scared to go back there and be confronted with what had happened and what she had witnessed, she also knew that she would regret it if she left without seeing it again. And she needed clothes and personal items, as well as her books and schoolwork if she was going to make it into a good college like her parents had wanted.

But first she needed sleep, she'd been awake for the better part of 3 days, not wanting to go to sleep for fear of the nightmares that plagued her dreams. She was reaching her limit though and since she no longer had to worry about where she was going to live, her brain had the chance to slow long enough for it to realise how tired it was. Her eyelids felt heavy and the voices of Emily and Derek began to lose focus until Derek said "hey, why don't you get some sleep, you must be exhausted. There's a sofa in the office around the corner, I'll take you." She pulled herself up out of the chair and followed the man she had only seen a few times into the other room, she flopped onto the sofa and closed her eyes, feeling sleep pull her down, managing to stay awake long enough to feel a blanket being draped over her, smelling what she had come to recognise as Emily's perfume, light yet sophisticated and not too girly. She managed to mutter a thank you before being engulfed by sleep.

Derek moved back into the conference where Emily was pacing back and forth, typing frantically on her phone, "What are you doing? You should get some rest".

Emily's gaze snapped up "what have I gotten myself into?" she seemed to be panicking, the full weight of what she had started seeming to have finally hit her.

"Prentiss?" Derek became concerned

"there's so much to do, my apartment isn't set up for a teenager, it's barely set up for me I'm there so little. We work away so much, how am I going to cope I can't just leave her on her own for days at a time. But then I can't quit, this job is everything I've been working towards my entire career..." she was starting to lose control, she could feel it, and Derek could see it in her frantic pacing and nonstop talking.

"Prentiss, breathe. EMILY" she stopped and looked at him. He placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her to look him in the eyes. In a calm, measured tone he said "it's all going to be okay, like I said before, you're not in this alone. We're here, I'm here." They went silent and the silence grew until it was suffocating, she couldn't control her eyes from moving to his lips, little did she know that he was having the exact same problem. It was then that he realised he was still holding onto her shoulders and let go abruptly, pulling them out of their stupor.

Emily cleared her throat and brought her phone back up to resume her list making of things she needed to make sure she got ready when they got back to D.C. papers, food and things for the spare bedroom that would become Carries room. As she resumed her pacing, at a slower speed this time, she turned to Derek and said "Thank you, for calming me down there, I was starting to lose my cool a little. And thanks, for what you said, it means a lot." She gave him a small smile and went back to her obsessive planning, fighting the tiredness that threatened if she were to stop for any period of time.

…

At 8 Morgan woke up from a very uncomfortable position slumped over the desk and groaned as he rubbed his neck and stretched his back out. When his eyes focused he saw Emily in the same position a few chairs down. He began to think about the night before, or technically earlier that morning, when he had tried to reassure her that her friends had her back in this, he couldn't help but feel that while his words were that of a friend, something between them felt very un-friend like. As he looked over at her sleeping form he felt like he was seeing her differently. He had seen her sleep on the jet and things and although if he was completely honest with himself, he had always taken a few seconds longer that was normal to watch her sleep than if he saw the others. She seemed to peaceful, her porcelain features free of stress and worry about what the next day would bring. He didn't want to wake her, he was pretty sure he fell asleep before she did and he managed to stay awake until 4, but if he let her sleep much longer she would only be even more stressed about getting everything done in such a limited amount of time. He went to get a coffee from the machine so at least he would have something to offer her when he pulled her out of her peaceful respite.

When he returned Emily was experiencing the same pain he had minutes before, making a face that was both funny and adorable at the same time. He walked over and placed the cup beside her arm with a "morning, sleep well?" giving her a knowing smile.

Emily gave small laugh "that is a very bad sleeping arrangement, you'd think I would've learnt that by now."

Derek chuckled, he couldn't help the curiosity "what time did you fall asleep?"

"around a quarter to 5." She saw the look of disapproval on Derek's face "it's fine, really, I'll manage for one day. Besides it's not like we haven't worked on less sleep than this on a case" she saw his face soften and gave a smile, it was nice to think that he worried about her, even with something as little as sleep.

She suddenly remembered then all the things she had to do before they left for D.C. and took a gulp of her coffee. "I should go wake Carrie, we've got to go to the house this morning, she hasn't been back there since it happened and I want to give her plenty of time, I don't want to have to rush her."

"I'll go wake her, you can finish waking up yourself" Derek smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder before going to get Carrie.

Derek gave a gentle rap on the door and opened it to see Carrie still fast asleep, he moved over to nudge her shoulder, not wanting to spook her. As Carrie began to wake up she could smell the comfort of Emilys perfume again, and was surprised when she finally willed her eyes open to see agent Morgan crouched beside the sofa. He let her know that she and Emily would be going to her house soon and left her to get ready. She still had some clean clothes left from the bag Emily and JJ had brought to the hospital, getting up she saw that what she had believed to be a blanket draped over her was in fact a light blue fleece which explained where the smell of perfume was coming from, it was Emily's. She closed the blinds on the windows facing the bullpen and got changed, putting on the borrowed fleece for a sense of comfort, she wasn't sure why the scent of someone she'd only known a few days was so comforting but she wasn't in the mood to try and determine the psychology behind that at the minute, she just wanted to get this over with.

…

They pulled up outside the house in the black SUV, if her stomach wasn't turning she'd have thought it was cool, being driven around the FBI, when her brain let her forget where she was going and why she managed to feel happy even, but then it would hit her all over again. She decided she needed to be strong, either that or she had dried out because she no longer felt the need to cry.

Emily got out and opened the door to the passenger side, she told Carrie to take a deep breath. "do you want me to come in with you?" Carrie, couldn't speak so she just nodded. Emily placed a comforting hand on her back and led her towards the house. As they were walking Emily noticed the fleece and smiled to herself, glad that she wasn't completely useful.

Walking through what still appeared a crime scene as it hadn't yet been cleared, seeing the same sight as she did that awful night and following morning, minus the bodies of her slain parents and brother, she noticed the changes like fingerprint powder on most surfaces which reminded her that they had caught the monsters responsible. She decided not to dwell on the memories and went to her room to get a suitcase for her things. She packed clothes, toiletries and family pictures and picked up her backpack and filled it with schoolwork. She had decided it was time for her to say goodbye to the house after taking one last look at everything, then something caught her eye in her parent's room, on her mother's dresser was the locket that had been passed down through 4 generations of her mother's family, she placed it around her neck and gave it a kiss before she turned and left the room almost exactly as she had found it.

Emily put her arm around her and led her back to the SUV and soon enough they were at the airport. Carrie took a deep breath and waited for her whole world to change.

Please R&R and I'll try to update soon x


End file.
